Virginia State and Federal Capital Case Notes

Joshua Wayne Andrews v. Commonwealth, Nos. 100374 and 100375, 2010 WL 3584009 (Va. Sept. 16, 2010)

In an opinion  by Justice Koontz, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld four capital murder convictions against Joshua Wayne Andrews, but unanimously vacated the death sentences and remanded for a new sentencing trial. VC3 Case Note

United States v. Caro, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 5511 (4th Cir. Mar. 17, 2010)

Fourth Circuit upholds conviction and death sentence where statutory aggravating factors are drug-related, and determines that defendant not entitled to discovery of BOP records of other inmate murders where defendant has been charged with murdering an inmate, and government alleges that BOP "cannot control" the inmate without a death sentence.
VC3 Case Note

Winston v. Kelly, 592 F.3d 535 (4th Cir. 2010)

Fourth Circuit holds that "exhaustion" and "failure-to-develop" issues under AEDPA are to be considered separately.
VC3 Case Note

Burns v. Commonwealth, No. 090863, 2010 WL 143780 (Va. Jan. 15, 2010)

Virginia Supreme Court held that because a proceeding remanded pursuant to Code § 8.01-654.2 for determination of a claim of mental retardation by a person sentenced to death for a capital offense was criminal in nature, the circuit court erred in granting summary judgment to the Commonwealth and in ruling that the defendant's competence was irrelevant to the mental retardation determination, refusing to adjudicate his competence. 
VC3 Case Note

Virginia Supreme Court
Commonwealth v. Morva, 278 Va. 329, 683 S.E.2d 553 (2009)

Virginia Supreme Court holds that defendant's cannot rebut allegations of future dangerousness by offering scientific prison violence risk assessment testimony.
VC3 Case Note

Virginia Supreme Court
Prieto v. Commonwealth, 278 Va. 366, 682 S.E.2d 910 (2009)

Virginia Supreme Court unanimously reversed Alfredo Prieto's death sentences for two counts of capital murder, due to defective verdict forms that (1) did not adequately inform the jury of its option to impose life in prison despite finding find one or both of the statutory aggravating factors and, (2) did not require the jury to rule unanimously on each factor it found beyond a reasonable doubt.
VC3 Case Note

Porter v. Commonwealth, 276 Va. 203, 661 S.E.2d 415 (2008)

The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the denial to appoint a prison risk assessment expert to rebut the prosecution's allegation of future dangerousness because the proposed testimony was insufficiently focused on the defendant's own prior record and history.
VC3 Case Note

Gray v. Commonwealth, 274 Va. 290, 645 S.E.2d 448 (2007)

The Virginia Supreme Court upheld Code §18.2-31(12), which provides that capital murder includes "the willful, deliberate and premeditated killing of a person under the age of fourteen by a person age twenty-one or older," against an Equal Protection challenge.
VC3 Case Note

Teleguz v. Commonwealth, 273 Va. 458, 643 S.E.2d 708 (2007)

The Virginia Supreme Court found that the vileness aggravator was appropriate when the defendant directed the actual perpetrators to cut the victim's throat, because it showed evidence of the Defendant's depravity of mind, but did not decide the issue of whether the vileness of the perpetrators may be imputed to the one who ordered the murders.
VC3 Case Note

Juniper v. Commonwealth, 271 Va. 362, 626 S.E.2d 383 (2006)

In re Horan, 271 Va. 258, 2006 WL 156994 (2006)

Supreme Court of Virginia vacated the lower court's striking of the death penalty in Commonwealth v. Pham. Read about this case in our Foreign Nationals section.

Atkins v. Commonwealth, 272 Va. 144, 631 S.E.2d 93 (2006)

VC3 Case Note